Ron Carter

Guys I will be racing my Roadster at the Coronado Festival of Speed next weeked. I hope a few of you local to Southern California can make it down for the race, come by the pits and say Hi: Coronado Speed Festival 2008 Posted By Sports Car Digest On August 15, 2008 @ 8:30 am In Vintage Racing Set against the stunning backdrop of San Diego Bay, the 2008 Coronado Speed Festival, held September 27-28, will feature 225 of the world’s most unique and pedigreed machines at one of the most distinctive stages, Naval Air Station North Island, the birthplace of Naval Aviation. A spectator-friendly 1.7 mile course is constructed in a matter of days on the runways and taxiways of Naval Air Station North Island. The vintage racecars are chosen to compete on the basis of their historical significance and certified authenticity. Some of the cars on the track are valued in the millions of dollars and, unlike most racing events, fans are invited to tour the pits and speak with the drivers of these unique machines. An enthusiastic gathering of 20,000 fans is expected to be on hand to take a step back in time to enjoy auto racing’s rich history. The 11th annual Coronado Speed Festival is hosted by the Navy Region Southwest and the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Program. MWR retains revenue generated by tickets sold to the Military and a percentage of the overall revenue generated by the event. They in turn provide positive support for the active duty military community and their families through Quality of Life Programs including single Sailor Recreation Centers, Fitness and Aquatic Facilities and the Base Theatre Free Movies. Active duty military and their dependants attend for free with Military ID. General admission and VIP tickets are available through Click-n-Print ticketing outlet. If you are unable to purchase tickets online, please call the Click-n-Print toll free help number at 1-888-695-0888. For more information, visit www.coronadospeedfestival.com.

Impressive to see so many Datsuns on that list.

As far as I am aware they were not OEM equipment on a Datsun / Nissan Vehicle in the USA. I have a set that were on my racing 510, they are the vented setup. They are strikingly similar to the Toyota Four Runner calipers. Ron

Wow, in my street Z 15+ years ago I installed power windows, power door locks, LED's on the doors for the alarm and a moderately modified door panel with two midranges and one tweeter. The biggest challenge was getting the wires through the body of the car and into the door without interfering with the regular mechanisms (I had to take both doors off). I built out a small panel that covered the center section of the door to hide the window mechanism and found room at the bottom of the door to install the motor. This system with all these mods worked well until I sold the car 8 years ago. I installed the switches for the windows on the center console behind the controls for the choke and made a small panel that raised that section of the center of the dash so that the switches would not ground out against the body of the car. The door locks were easy, the windows were a little more involved but worked well. Ron

A Detroit Locker or Torsen Gleason might be a better choice rather than welding your diff.

Sure would like to see these cars together, throw in a BRE 510 and BRE Roadster or two and it would be a heck of a photo! Great photo Carl, I am so impressed with what you have done! R PS at $8 to $10 bucks a gallon, I do a lot of pushing and les driving of my Z.

I just sent mine out for polishing as I got caught out in the rain with my car and that as you can imagine was not a pretty site. The wheels look like the ones above now (minus the serious pitting) and my car resides in the Datsun Heritage Museum for the time being. Carl we will find you that last wheel you need, it is just a matter of time. Again, I would strongly recomend not running these wheels on a street car. Any water will cause the wheels to cloud up instantly.

Carl, the "BRE" spoiler is a copy of the Nissan Z 432 spoiler. Which is currently available from Classic Datsun Motorsports. It does have the flat spot on the back of it for a decal or an emblem. It also has two ribs on the front side of the spoiler. There is a rear spoiler that I have seen, that has a curved back (no flat spot) and no ribs on the front. I am not sure if that spoiler is currently reproduced. I am not sure exactly how you come up with three different spoilers in your example above, as it sounds like one is the original and another is a copy of that same spoiler..... It would be helpful to have a photo comparison of each spoiler in question here. Here is the BRE spoiler front: http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/data/500/932paint_16.JPG

Hmm, I have gone to car shows for 20+ years with several types of Datsuns. Most of the shows I enjoy are the simple and basic shows. Not the glitzy Monterey want-to-be shows. There are a couple of types of people that show up to a car show, and that seems to be the difference. The shows I enjoy often have the most eclectic cars and entrants. Cars and Coffee here in Southern California comes to mind as a great show. It's two hours long on a Saturday morning, there are no classes or awards, just show up with your car. I have run into every one from Steve Saleen to Chip Foose at this event. The shows that I dread are often due to the participants and not the show itself, as I wish I had a dollar for everyone who asked me how fast my car is in the 1/4 mile. I would hope that the public at large was a little more educated, or courteous enough to read my place card regarding my car before asking a dumb question. I went to a show recently, where the public could walk amongst the cars. I was amazed to watch a Japanese lady walk up to my friends roadster, open the door (its a convertable and the top was down) look inside and then SLAM the door as hard as she could. She then proceeded to walk up to my car and started to reach for the handle, and I got her attention and told her in no certain terms that she was not to open the door, or even touch my car. What I enjoy the most from a car show are the kids. The expression on a little kids face when I seat him in a real race car, put the belts around him and hand him the steering wheel is just really cool....

picked this up on one of the roadster sites. Like the design, it looks like a new Datsun should! http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2008/08/datsun-240z-fairlady-z-retro-concept.html Ron

Craig! well done! great photo spread! Awesome!

I had heard John was going to be there! Nice looking car, looks a lot like my replica, nicely done. R

Craig, congratulations!! Your car is worthy of some press! and lightning magazine really has done well by the southern california Datsun enthusiasts. I understand that the magazines are selling really well in Japan too. Thus we see them coming back often to continue to maintain sales. Hope to see many of you at the JCCS show in October! R

Along with Chris, I am a big fan, I have purchased Hector Cademartori's original of ZEAL, along with several numbered prints of it as well. Thanks to Chris I have the Costanza poster from the 1970 ARRC race, that is now signed by Peter Brock, John Morton, Trevor Harris and Floyd Link. Peter and Gayle have enjoyed the opportunity to relive this great history, and I hope that they can supplement thier income in doing so. Since there are many of you interested in this stuff, I will be donating a spook that was on my BRE replica, (that was slightly damaged) to the fund for the Datsun Museum. I am collecting all of the signatures of the guys and will be forwarding it to the museum to auction on ebay. It should be available after the middle of October. Ron

Interesting. As you can see, he’s offering our $49 poster for $79.95 If he sells he’ll buy one from us, and probably put the ship to address as the bid winner. Not sanctioned by us but if someone buys a poster from us we can’t keep them from reselling it. And it’s another sale for us, just has a middle person inbetween. I wouldn’t want to stop him. I’ve thought myself that I should put some of our items up on e-bay as it would increase visibility. Thanks for sending the link. It’s very good for me to know what’s happening out there and I hate to admit I don’t really know how to work with e-bay yet so this will help. Gayle

Nice find! I think i have seen that one before, but I have never seen one for sale. I will forward the photo to Gayle. Ron

Adam, purchased my friends SR-20 powered 510, and through an agent purchased the #27 Datsun Roadster, and 1984 BSR #33 Paul Newman Z car. Recently he purchased the #33 BSR 610 and who knows what is next... I hope Adam is able to take the time to get out and enjoy these cars with his busy schedule.

That is not Victors car... That is from the MSA show 2007, and it is my car.

Hmm, sounds like Adam Corolla, as he has one each of all the cars listed above. Ron

Will Mr. K be at the show? or will it be a telecast from Japan?

Hmm, that seems odd. I will contact Gayle and see if she knows about this. Ron

BRE Z poster #46 arrived today and it is really well done. I compared it to the original that I have and it is very very close. Other than a few alterations (size) and added copyright information the poster has come out extremely well and it will be a pleasure to display this framed copy in my office.

Congrats! can't wait to see what they look like!

It depends on what you need. I NEED to race, therefore I have racing Datsuns. What do you need?

The R-4's would overheat in my roadster and I went to KFP Gold pads. Again, a true race pad had to be hot to work, but once they were, they worked and I could not get them to fade.